1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to loss prevention and Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) and, more particularly, to an EAS tag that secure onto an article and allow the presence of this article to be detected by compatible EAS equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
It is a common practice for retail stores to protect articles with EAS tags to prevent theft of the article by shoplifters. There are several methods of tagging articles or merchandise, most common of which is attaching an EAS tag or EAS labels using adhesive, pins, lanyards or straps to trigger the EAS security system resulting in an alarm. The EAS labels are easy to remove while the cables or strapped tags are sometimes bulky or obtrusive to the person trying on the protected merchandise like a pair of shoes or boots to determine the fit. This makes the trying on process inconvenient and ineffective. In other words, for most instances, the EAS tag must be removed by an authorized person before a buyer can try on the article. Further to this, the cables or straps used to attach the conventional tag to the merchandise can be cut which then makes it easy for shoplifters to remove these tags, rendering the article unsecure and unprotected.
There remains a long standing and continuing need for an advance in the art of EAS and theft deterrent tags that makes the tags more difficult to defeat, simpler in both design and use, more economical and efficient in their construction and use, and provide a more secure and reliable engagement of the article to be monitored without damaging or permanently altering the article.